Rage

Chapter Fifteen

The next morning, Julio was gone.

When I woke up, I was feeling disoriented, until the events of the night before came rushing back. I turned to my left, but found that there was no warm presence in my bed beside me.

"Fuck." I groaned, falling back into my covers, and cursing myself for being so stupid.

A few minutes later, I grabbed my phone from the bedside table, hoping for a text from Julio, knowing that, if there wasn't one, Ally would be there to comfort me and threaten to beat him up, even though she'd be too scared to follow through.

Fortunately, there was a text.

Sorry, had to leave. I'll see you at school tomorrow, princess.
– J

Although there wasn't an explanation, it was better than nothing. He didn't hate me.

However, he didn't mention anything about the night before. We hadn't even spoken about it. Did he regret it? Was that why he'd left? Did he just want to continue as friends or did he want something more?

With all these questions in mind, I did the only thing I could; I called Ally, in the hopes that she'd give me boy advice.

It went straight to voicemail.

"Ugh." I groaned, hanging up. Did boys have to be so confusing?

"What's wrong, young Padawan?" The voice of my favorite therapist asked amusedly as the man himself walked into my bedroom. I hadn't even noticed the door opening.

"First off, what's a Padawan?" I asked Ryo Karasawa, "And, secondly, I have boy problems."

"Have you never watched Star Wars? Like, never?" He demanded, seemingly offended.

"Isn't it super geeky?" I asked, confused. I hadn't known that he was into sci-fi.

"How dare you?" He gasped dramatically, his hand flying to his heart, as if greatly offended.

"Nerd." I teased, smiling.

"Anyway, what's this I hear about boy problems? Is it who I think it is?" Ryo said, smirking.

I nodded, and he took a seat at the foot of my bed. I sat up, and the entire story came spilling out, sans all the details about the kiss, of course— I would save that for Ally.

"He doesn't hate you." Was the first thing that Ryo said when I finished.

"I know that, too." I snapped impatiently, before saying, "I just want to know what he's thinking. I mean, is he even the kind of guy who has relationships or is he into the whole hump-and-dump situation more?"

"That's something that only he can answer, Tay." Ryo explained, calm as ever. "Both of us might be guys, but that doesn't mean I know exactly what he's thinking or, in this case, feeling." That did make sense, despite the fact that it didn't help at all.

"But that doesn't help me figure out what to do next!" I complained, burying my face in my hands.

"You like him. You don't know if he likes you. Act normally, maybe a little nicer than normal and then see how he responds. Is that good enough advice for you?" I nodded vigorously, glad that I now had something.

"You know," I said, brightening up, "If you had a tad bit more patience, you'd be an amazing psychiatrist."

"And have to deal with psychos like you all day? I'm good, thanks." He joked.

I hung out with Ryo for a while longer before finally letting him leave because he needed to watch his siblings. I would've offered to help, but I just wasn't good with kids.